Urban Air Recap
Justin "Juice" Kennedy becomes a human firework
This year’s Idaho Potato Drop featured the 5th annual Urban Air contest, hosted by the OnSlaught Crew. Urban Air is a big air ski competition and rail jam held in downtown Boise, ID every New Year’s Eve.
Justin “Juice” Kennedy of the OnSlaught Crew tells us how about he and his crew got the potato rollin’ on this event 5 years ago, and what it looks like today.
“4 years ago, when the OS crew got our first winch, we asked if we could build a big air jump on the side of the rail jam. Since then the Urban Air contest/exhibition has become the centerpiece of the live action with more funding, riders, prizes, media coverage and explosives.”
"My brother Mason and I fabricated the takeoff ramp out of steel so it's sturdy and can be reused for years. The landing is constructed each year by leaning a wall against a 20ft wide storage container. This design helps cut back on the amount of snow we need to haul in to pull this thing off."
"It's super tough to prep for this event, it's so unlike any other jump I've ever hit. There's no warm up for this gap jump so if you want to hit it, you're all in."
"The snow has come from different places over the years (Gateway tubing hill, Tamarack Resort), this year we were able to relocate snow from the Boise Town Square Mall parking lot which made things way easier on us than years past. We have refined the build process over the years and can now set it up and tear it down in 4 long days."
"The explosives team was dead set on getting me "rigged" for the midnight jump. They made a fully custom leather firework holsters that wrapped around my ski boots. As the potato dropped I launched the jump right at midnight with sparks and screaming fireworks attached to me. Honestly I fully tuned out the the fireworks and focused on my end of the deal trusting that is was going to work, the fireworks only lasted so long so timing was pretty crucial between the winch driver and the electronic firework timer. All in all, I'm hyped it worked out so good, lol, always had big stuntman dreams. Box = checked."
Justin drops the potato on his next project...
"The OS Crew has been traveling and filming street/backcountry for our upcoming movie project. I'm so hyped on what we've filmed for the movie so far, I can confidently say this will be the most f***** OS projected yet. Toss a follow to @OScrew or @get_juiced_ if you want to stay in tune or go watch our latest movie FUEL on YouTube. Thank you all for the support and we can't wait to share what we have been getting into with all of you!"